Kaoru Hanayama
Kaoru Hanayama (花山 薫, Hanayama Kaoru) is a major character from anime and manga series of Baki the Grappler. He is one of the strongest characters from the series. Personality Kaoru Hanayama is a 19 year old Yakuza leader. He is very silent and proud fighter. His code of honor is great as he chooses not to fall in battle even if it means his death; a family vow which has been held in a long tradition passed from generations. Even after 3 direct strikes from Katsumi Orochi, he still chose not to fall and chose to risk death. Katsumi even admitted that he lost his battle to him despite winning the match. He is looked upon as an older brother figure to Baki Hanma. His act of pouring a drink over Emi Akezawa's grave suggests a feeling of love, but it is not known. His mother is terminally diseased with cancer, making her a feeble shell of her former self. Hanayama visits her often. He revealed to Baki that she was 35 years old but looked 90 because of the cancer, and that he was jealous that Baki's mother was still alive and well. Appearance Kaoru is incredabily large for his age and very muscular. He has black hair and many scars across his face. Kaoru also has a full back tattoo, that is given to each member of the Hanayama family in honor of the man who saved their great ancestor. Kaoru usually wears glasses when he is not fighting and is almost always in his white suit. He also wears a blue undershirt and purple tie. He had an infamous showdown with the convict Spec, who manages to place a handful of bullets into Hanayama's mouth and slam it shut, causing them to explode and create two large holes in Hanayama's mouth that gave him a new scars. Although Hanayama won the battle, he wears a facemask for most of the series. His appearance has almost not changed in the five year gap. History 'Baki the Grappler' Past As a boy Hanayama's father was the first head of the Hanayama Group (See Baki Gaiden: Scarface), though not an unkind man his father was fully indoctrinated as a Yakuza leader and was fierce and strong but highly honorable earning the respect and recognition of several other Yakuza family's, Kizaki, a close friend of Hanayama's father discovered Hanayama's strength witnessing feats of strength the boy demonstrated well beyond that of most trained adults. Hanayama's father discovered his son's strength before he died in a gang war, as he was leaving Hanayama's mother had begged him not to leave, but he would not be deterred and smacked her, angered by the mistreatment of his mother young Hanayama grasped his father's arm with great force, asking is that all his father knew his son possessed the exact same incredible physical strenght he did and encouraged the boy to tighten his grip,in doing so he caused pressure to build and the arm to explode, this impressed his father and he left for his fight confident that his son would be a great successor to the Hanayama groups leadership as he knew he himself would likely die in this gang war, until such time as he was ready Kizaki stewarded the Hanayama group and cared for Kaoru and his mother's well being, he helped educateyoung Hanayama on the ways of Yakuza after his father died. When he finally felt ready to assume leadership of the group Hanayama was welcomed with open arms by every member, Kizaki being closest to him and still respectful of Hanayama's father took to calling him "second" as he was the second generation successor to the Hanayama group, as is tradition at this point Kaoru is endowed with the same tattoo on his back all male heirs in his family were given of the fearless man, the story of the fearless man, is that of a lone traveller was offered shelter by a noble family in feudal japan, on the same night a group of assasains is sent to kill every member of the family in a bloody coup, the traveller attempts to flee carrying a large bell on his back , but is cornered by the bandits, they attack him stabbing him, cutting him, beating and berating him, but the man is unmoved and stares at them agggresively, many moments pass until the leader of the bandits realizes he has been long dead, yet still is standing there with the heavy bell on his back giving them the same threatening look, taking it as a sign the man has an incredible strength of spirit the bandits leave their bloody deeds done, the next morning the body of the man is found by the remaining servants of the deceased family still frozen in the same pose, it is then revealed that under the large bell he had been carrying he had hidden Kiichi Hanayama the youngest heir to the Hanayama clan, as a tribute to this courageous act that spared their family it is tradition for every male heir to bear the tattoo of the fearless man who saved them and is a symbol of, kindness, hope and great spiritual strength to them all, an example for them to live by even in the dangerous world of the Yakuza. At age 15 when Kaoru Hanayama recieves the tattoo from a traditional tattoo artist he is unsatisfied with it and as his subbordinates attempt to calm down the tattoo artist who is furious for the criticism Hanayama leaves without them knowing, Kizaki panics and has every available member search for him, finding his whereabouts to be in the territory occupied by Yakuza group who had killed his father, fearing for Hanayama's life they rush to save him however upon arrival they find the badly beaten and bloodied bodies of the rival Yakuza group finally entering they boss's office to find Hanayama having beaten the boss but now covered from head to foot with scars the one's on his body caused by blades and the ones on his face by human hands as he strangled the boss of the rival gang, upon returning to the tattoo artist he reveals his tatto as the "true fearless man" showing that he needed scars to show his strength, in awe of such an incredible act and revelation of truth the artist bows in acknowledgemnt that Hanayama was right and he possesses an incredible strength. Childhood Saga Hanayama represents his own group in the fight against Tommy Carbine who represent the Yajima group. Tommy is easily defeated by Hanayama with little effort and Hitoshi Kuriyagawa then asks Hanayama if he will fight Baki. Hanayama is uninterested at first, until he hears that Baki is the son of Yujiro Hanma of course, and he then agrees to the request. Abilities Hanayama is an immensely powerful gangster who mostly relies on his raw physical power and his grip. His grip is so strong that if he grabs an opponent's arm he can usually cause it to explode from restricting the blood flow like he did with Yuri Chakovsky. He is also a street fighter and it is unknown if he has trained in martial art styles. He is shown to be very tough in that when a group of thugs shot at him with guns they left him no lasting damage at all and simply bounced off. He was able to take punches from the convict Spec who had previously caused extensive damage to the Liberty Statue just through the use of his fists. When having a strength test with the character Pickle, Hanayama's strength was compared to that of a Triceratops a dinosaur that can weigh between 6-12 tons. He has also taken on a Great White Shark with his bare hands whilst underwater. Techniques *Vice Grip *Body Rotation Turning Kick Trivia *The character is based on the real-life yakuza, Kei Hanagata. Category:Characters Category:Male